


Last Thought

by Berty



Category: due South
Genre: Coming Out, Community: ds_aprilfools, M/M, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-16
Updated: 2007-04-16
Packaged: 2017-10-12 10:55:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Berty/pseuds/Berty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Frannie's big day and her brother has some news to break to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Thought

Francesca Teresa Pia Vecchio looked in the mirror one last time. Her hair was immaculate, her make-up flawless and her gown was stunning in a demure, thirty-something kind of way. But her dark eyes were puzzled.

"Frannie, we're gonna be late," Ray called.

She'd chosen a cream coloured silk and a simple shape. She'd done the white lace and big skirt thing last time, and look how well that had turned out. No, this was right, this was good. Fraser had said she looked 'extremely elegant' – and he would know.

Frannie picked up her bouquet of yellow roses, brushing her fingers over the perfection of the petals. It wasn't going to be a big deal, this part of the day; just a few friends and her closest family to see her married to Elliot. The big celebration was later on – champagne, dancing, a lobster dinner and however many family punch-ups they could fit in before 2 am.

Francesca looked around her bedroom once more, smiling at the adolescent pink girliness of it. Now there were just her and Ray in the house. The same house she had grown up in, the same house she had been married from and the same house she had returned to after two years, divorced, bitter and hopefully wiser.

Ma had gone with Maria and Tony, taking Frannie's year old daughter, Isabella. Fraser and Kowalski had taken Stella and Alex – three years old and looking like an angel holding his Aunt Stella's hand as he'd walked down the path. Frannie scrutinised her belly and thought she could just see her third child starting to show – a brother or sister for 'Bella and Alex, and a son or daughter for Elliot – her third, his first.

His face when she'd told him had been a picture. Especially as she'd kind of blurted it out, having had the shock of his proposal take her by surprise just three minutes earlier. She'd known early on that Elliot was the man for her – not loud, not showy or even terribly handsome, but loyal and honest and hard-working. Ray teased him for being an accountant and therefore boring, but Elliot just laughed and reminded Ray that accountants rarely got retired by way of bullet wounds.

"Frannie! Come on! You know Ma will get all stressed if you aren't there in time." Ray sounded a little stressed himself down there at the bottom of the stairs, looking like a film star in an olive suit with a cream silk shirt and a yellow rosebud in his lapel. He and Stella were a stunning looking couple, they always looked classy and expensive.

It had been strange seeing Fraser again. Although they wrote intermittently, she hadn't seen him since Ray Kowalski's leaving party a couple of months after her brother's return – and that was four years ago now. He looked good – he'd always looked good. But now he looked… Frannie didn't know what it was… happy? Contented? She'd known he'd missed Canada and snow and caribou, but she hadn't realised how much going home would make a difference to his character. He laughed now, often. He would smile at the slightest provocation. He seemed much less rigid than he'd used to. Canada was obviously good for him.

And Ray Kowalski, her one-time fake brother- now he hadn't changed at all. As sharp and edgy as ever, Ray was still slim and his hair was still that bizarre shade of blonde. Maybe he'd put on a few pounds, and Lord knows, he'd needed to. He looked great too. Happy, just like Fraser. Frannie wondered if he'd remarried or found someone new. They'd kind of lost touch when she'd fallen pregnant with Alex, although Fraser would mention him in his letters and keep her up to date with little snippets about his life from time to time. It was nice that he and the Mountie had kept in touch.

Francesca found it incredibly unfair how well the men of her acquaintance aged so well without hours of remedial work. Some mornings, when she first woke up…

"Hey." Her brother's soft voice interrupted that line of thought.

Frannie turned and watched the warm smile spread across Ray's face.

"You look beautiful, sis."

Frannie returned the smile, but couldn't resist the opportunity to pick her brother's brains. "Ray, when you came back, what happened to Ray Kowalski?"

"Stanley?" Ray echoed in surprise. "He went on that quest thing with Fraser."

"Yeah, but after that? Did he get transferred or what?"

Ray smiled sharply. "Does that matter right now, Frannie? There's a guy downtown, standing in a room full of Vecchios who could really use you about now."

Frannie had been misdirected by her brother too many times not to know a classic example when she saw one, and this just added weight to her growing conviction.

"He moved, didn't he?" she pressed, undeterred.

"Yeah, moved out of Chicago altogether. Said after two years of being me, he needed a break. Can we go now?"

Frannie turned back to the mirror, and watched her brother's reflection. "Did he marry again? Fraser never mentioned…"

"No, Frannie, he didn't. What is this? Did he say something to upset you?"

Francesca was quick to shake her head. Relations between the two Rays had always been fraught with complications, what with ex-wives and ex-partners and having shared an identity. She wouldn't want to add anything to that pile.

"He just seems happy," Frannie tried to explain.

"It's a wedding. People are supposed to be happy! Now, let's go – we're late." Ray held out an arm to his sister, an expression of hope on his face.

"Did you think Fraser was different?" Frannie asked. "He seems a lot more mellow, more relaxed somehow…"

Ray's expression fell and he walked up behind his sister, looking over her shoulder in the mirror.

"Francesca," he said gently and in that instant Frannie knew she was right.

"No one told me," she said simply. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't _Fraser_ tell me?"

"Because I asked him not to," Ray admitted. "It was bad enough that he'd gone…"

"How long have they been together?"

Ray dropped his head back to look at the ceiling. "Does it matter? You're marrying a great guy today, Frannie. A guy who loves you and Alex and Isabella. I know you used to have a thing for the Mountie, but…"

"How long?" Frannie asked quietly.

Ray met her eyes again. "Ever since the quest. They got together while they were looking for Franklin's hand."

"Thank God!" Frannie breathed, holding a hand to her chest dramatically.

Ray blinked at her. "Thank God?"

"Yes! I thought I'd been hitting on Fraser all that time when he was already taken. I'm no saint, bro, but I do _not_ hit on someone else's boyfriend!"

Ray choked out a surprised laugh, his eyebrows almost lost in the furrows of his forehead. "That… that's priceless," he spluttered.

Frannie settled her headdress one last time, lifted her head, blinked a few times and started toward the door of her bedroom. "Come on, Ray. I've got a husband to marry and a couple of friends to torture."

"You wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I?" Frannie asked with an evil grin. "Just make sure there's a camera on Kowalski when I throw my bouquet, that's all I'm saying."

Fin


End file.
